Canal Winchester Messenger - January 23rd, 2022

PAGE 4 - MESSENGER - January 23, 2022
www.columbusmessenger.com
Hamilton Township High School alumni give back
By Linda Dillman
Staff Writer
Time and distance do not stop Hamilton Township High
School graduates from giving back and the latest round of
Alumni Association donations are benefitting students of
all ages throughout the district.
On Jan. 13, Hamilton Township High School Alumni
Association treasurer, Karen Cook, made the rounds of
three buildings–the elementary, intermediate and middle
school–to distribute $250 Vince Payne Classroom Grant
checks to a teacher in each building.
The grants, much like the association’s Elmo Kallner
Scholarship Award and the George Cole Library Fund
projects, are entirely funded by alumni donations.
“Our membership is most generous and donate to our
different funds each year,” said Cook. “HTHS graduates
believe in giving back because they want to help students
like they were helped when they were in school.”
Late last year teachers were invited to submit a proposal
for the grants for funding of a special project or classroom
need. In the past, award-winning projects included a
video camera, veteran ceremony, special seating, and specialized
camera supplies.
“We want to honor at least one teacher in each of the
buildings by backing them as best as we can,” said Cook,
who was a music teacher and said she was well aware of
the money instructors spend out their own pocket on their
classrooms. “We named this grant in memory of former
public relations director Vince Payne who sadly passed
away last year. Vince was always there to help alumni,
“Our membership is most generous and
donate to our different funds each year. HTHS
graduates believe in giving back because they
want to help students like they were helped
when they were in school.”
- Karen Cook, treasurer
HTHS Alumni Association
teachers, and kids in any way he could. This grant program
honors him in honoring teachers and students.”
At the elementary school, kindergarten teacher Cara
Downerd was selected for her sensory path project, which
will be installed in a hallway later this year. The path is a
series of movements identified on the floor and wall than
can be used by students to re-focus, take a break, or work
off excess energy while developing gross motor skills.
“It can be used by an individual student, a group of students,
or the whole class,” said Downerd. “It can be especially
helpful for students who experience frustration,
anger or other sensory overloads. Academics can also be
incorporated with the sensory path.”
Intermediate English Language Arts fifth grade teacher
Brittany Smith is using her grant to create a t-shirt design
and sale for an upcoming Purple Star project in support of
military families.
“The proceeds from the sale will be used in part to begin
financing a military memorial in front of the administration
building,” said Smith. “The district recently established
a Purple Star Committee that represents every
building in the district. Purple Star schools acknowledge
and support students and families connected to our
nation’s military.”
Seventh grade middle school teachers Cole Freshkorn
and Jenna Berry are collaborating on turning a storage
cabinet into a ‘comfort closet’ consisting of snacks and
hygiene supplies for students to take when they are in
need.
“Many of our students come to us every day without
various resources that they need to be successful,” said
Freshkorn. “With our care closet idea, students will have
the opportunity to take what they need such as toothpaste,
toothbrushes, deodorant, body wash, female hygiene products,
as well as various snacks/food they might not have
access to at home.”
At the high school, science teacher and Army combat veteran
Corey O’Brien wants to purchase military-related items
such as branch insignias for the school’s spring Military
Signing Event, flags, and a specialized military themed jersey
to honor two Hamilton graduates killed in action.
O’Brien is also the school’s Purple Star liaison and was
deployed to Kuwait in 2003 and Iraq in 2004-05.
“We held our first Military Signing Event last spring
and plan on making it a yearly tradition to show how
proud we are of our students who are willing to make such
a selfless sacrifice in service to our nation,” said O’Brien.
“We want to give our future military members the same
type of recognition as we do our student athletes that commit
to play a sport in college.”
(See photos of the recipients online at columbusmessenger.com.
Look under South News.)
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Bugs and Birds Up Close
The Bugs & Birds Up Close Photography Exhibition
is at the Grange Insurance Audubon Center 505 W.
Whittier St., Columbus, through March 13.
The exhibit features the work of photographers
Richard Schnuerer and David Greenberg.
Schnuerer’s work includes 20-plus pieces showcasing
Ohio raptors, including hawks, owls, eagles and
osprey. Learn how the eagle has made a significant
comeback in Ohio from only four nesting pairs in 1979
to 700-plus nests in 2020.
A special feature of the snowy owl “Hedwig,” who
visited the Delaware area last winter and became
quite the celebrity, is also included. In addition to the
raptors, an exhibit of ruby-throated hummingbirds
will also be included to tell the story of these tiny birds
and their journey to Ohio and the Grange Insurance
Audubon Center.
On the creepy side of things, the exhibition will
include 20-plus photographs by Greenberg, who presents
mostly insects but also includes spiders, millipedes,
and other multi-legged, chitin-encased creatures,
some flying, some eating (or being eaten), or just
staring at you suspiciously from their faceted, buggy
eyes. These creatures live on land, on water, and in the
air and they are extraordinarily important to human
beings.
Greenberg’s work also includes bees, among the
most valuable and most important creatures on earth
because much of what we eat depends on their efforts.
His spiders may look scary, and although they can
sting if provoked, he reminds viewers that spiders are
infinitely less harmful than mosquitoes or ticks,
because they do not carry diseases, and they eat harmful
insects. He also includes beautiful butterflies,
interesting moths, and a number of other multilegged
fellow inhabitants of our planet in his exhibition photos.
Yost asks FCC to help stop scams
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost urged the Federal
Communications Commission to help stop the flood of
foreign-based illegal robocalls that attempt to scam
Americans.
A letter sent Yost and a bipartisan group of 51
attorneys general calls for the FCC to require gateway
providers — the companies that allow foreign calls into
the United States — to take steps to reduce how easily
robocalls have been able to enter the U.S. telephone
network, including implementing STIR/SHAKEN, a
caller ID authentication technology that helps prevent
spoofed calls.
Gateway providers should be required to implement
this technology within 30 days of it becoming a rule to
help eliminate spoofed calls and to make sure that
international calls that originate from U.S. telephone
numbers are legitimate. In December, Yost and a coalition
of 51 attorneys general successfully helped to persuade
the FCC to shorten by a year the deadline for
smaller telephone companies to implement
STIR/SHAKEN.
The attorneys general are asking the FCC to
require these gateway providers to take additional
measures to reduce robocalls, including:
•Responding to requests from law enforcement,
state attorneys general, or the FCC to trace back calls
within 24 hours.
•Blocking calls when providers are aware of an illegal
or likely fraudulent caller.
•Blocking calls that originate from numbers that
are on a “do not originate” list — such as government
phone numbers that are for incoming calls only.
•Ensuring that foreign telephone companies they
partner with are ensuring that calls are being made
from legitimate numbers.
The attorneys general encourage the FCC to require
all phone companies to block calls from a gateway
provider if it fails to meet these requirements.